Louder Than Words
by Clea2011
Summary: Jess appears to lose interest and move onto another man, and Becker realises he might actually have to do the chasing himself if he wants to win her back.
1. Chapter 1

It was almost turning into a routine.

Once every month or so, Jess would put out an anomaly alert and the location would be depressingly familiar. Connor would look increasingly guilty, knowing that it was his experimentation whilst working for Philip that was making the ARC such a hotspot for all the anomaly activity now. In every case so far one of the team would lock the anomaly before something hungry came through. Eventually it would disappear. Until the next one turned up.

Connor's old lab was starting to be known as the anomaly room as it was by far the most common opening point, but the car park ran it a close second. Nothing ever actually came through them as they were locked so quickly, but there was always that fear.

Connor had started trying to find a way to widen the range of the locking device so that it covered a larger area. That way, on the day that they were all sure would eventually arrive when a raptor or something equally friendly came bounding through, they wouldn't need to waste time running through the vast building. It might mean the difference between life and death for someone.

It all started one day when the familiar siren went off. This time it was a new location, a corridor just off the hub, and it took a few minutes to locate and lock it.

Approaching it from the opposite side to the hub, Becker was sure that he'd seen something coming through, but with the anomaly filling most of the corridor it was hard to tell. Locked, it was small enough to get past and he headed off to check on the hub.

"Jess, everything okay?" Matt checked through his earpiece. There was no immediate response and Becker took this as a cue to start running. "Jess?"

"All fine," Jess's voice came through. "Sorry, there was a call coming in."

Becker slowed a little but kept going.

"I didn't see anything." That was Matt again, but Becker ignored him.

"Wouldn't the sirens be going off if a creature had come through?" Abby called as they hurried after him.

Abby was right about that. But he thought he'd seen something.

Jess was sitting at her station, smiling brightly at them, all limbs intact and no sign of any sort of injury. Becker looked around the room, still not convinced.

"Did anything just come through here?" he asked Jess.

"I'm guessing the answer's going to be no," Matt told Abby, who smirked when Becker turned and glared at them both.

"It looked like a man. If some caveman's come through..." he stopped when Abby could no longer control her urge to laugh, and Matt wasn't even trying.

Jess at least just kept smiling at him. "I definitely haven't seen a caveman," she confirmed. "Only you. And Lester, does he count?"

"You're seeing things, mate," Matt added. "Maybe you need a holiday."

Becker was still looking around, feeling slightly disappointed that there was nothing to shoot. Also, he wouldn't have minded too much if Jess had been threatened just a little by some non-lethal but scary looking creature that he would have to save her from because... well he hated to admit it but he just loved it when she felt he'd done something particularly brave and looked up at him adoringly. It just made the day that little bit brighter. Not that he was going to do anything about it, not whilst they were working together. Maybe when one of them moved on. There was no rush, Jess was besotted with him and was unlikely to be interested in anyone else any time soon, and there was a certain enjoyment in keeping her hanging on in there. Also, it was driving Abby and Emily crazy, and as they were two of the bossiest women he'd ever met in his life, that had to be another plus.

It did mean that he was missing out on certain delights Miss Parker had to offer, but as long as there were plenty of anomalies opening and monsters to shoot at, he supposed he could cope. He glanced down at her legs, then tried to pretend that he was looking at his gun instead.

Jess's smile was starting to look a little fixed at the mention of a holiday. She was probably thinking about sunning herself on some remote beach, he realised. Probably imagining him there too - although a boring beach holiday would be his idea of hell. Who would want that when there were hunting and shooting holidays all across the world to go on, and no menagerie staff to tell him that killing dangerous beasts was wrong? Perhaps Matt was right and he should think about a little trip.

"I'd love a holiday," Jess announced. "I saw an advert last night for the Caribbean, it looked wonderful. Miles and miles of beach..."

Yes, he was right, she was thinking about the beach. Abby started to enthuse about it with her, and he took that as a cue to go back and check on the anomaly before they started comparing sun tan lotions or something.

Connor was in the corridor trying to get a reading from the locked anomaly. It was flickering and looked as if it were about to close. Sure enough, as Becker and Matt approached, it blinked out of existence. Connor looked slightly disappointed.

"I think it was a recent one," he announced. "I'd really like to go through those, go a year back or a year forward, maybe check the racing results before I go... What? Don't tell me you two never thought about it!"

"I haven't," Matt told him. "My father did though, that's how we first got set up here."

Matt was just weird, there was no getting away from it. He had the ultimate older woman/toyboy thing going with Emily, who had a couple of centuries on him. He was walking around giving them orders and he hadn't even been born yet. And now he was freely talking about hopping around through time as if he were some kind of real-life Dr Who. Becker preferred not to think about it all, much as he liked Matt the man's very existence made his head hurt. Particularly now as they had saved the world and Matt should no longer exist for a whole variety of reasons, yet there he was still walking and talking and bossing Becker about... no, the Matt Anderson Futureman headache was starting again, he wasn't going to think about it.

Connor had no problem with it though, and started to engage Matt in a discussion on how Mr Anderson senior had managed that. Recognising that his headache was about to get worse, Becker headed for the armoury to clean his guns. That always made him feel better.

* * *

Aside from that brief interlude, that day and the next passed without any other anomalies.

Connor had vanished into his new lab and stayed there, still trying to work out why so many anomalies hit the ARC, and hoping that he was going to find a way to stop them before one materialised in Lester's office and he found himself out of a job.

Lester was sitting in said office looking irritated. He was probably irritated at the lack of anomalies, and would be equally irritated when one appeared.

Matt was locked in his own office. Becker had no idea what he was doing in there. Probably considering which era to jump into next or something, or recharging his robot batteries, which was the only logical explanation of why he'd survived the New Dawn blast and the time... no, headache, he wasn't going to think about it.

Abby seemed to be engrossed in something up in the menagerie. At first it appeared to be studying Rex, who apparently needed more study than every other animal in there put together. Soon enough Emily seemed to need to help her, and Jess also appeared to be needed whenever she was on a break. When Becker saw a copy of Perfect Wedding magazine tucked under Jess's arm as she headed upstairs for her girls coffee break, he realised what was going on and gave the menagerie a wide berth.

Jess was, coffee breaks aside, mostly still down at her station in the hub. She'd been quite subdued that morning, and he wondered if it might be time to buy her another bar of chocolate seeing as he'd failed to save her from the non-existent monster the previous day. Most likely she was feeling sorry for herself because Abby was getting married, and bars of chocolate from him always seemed to cheer her up.

It was something of a surprise then, when he handed over a bag of Maltesers and was rewarded with only a small smile and a polite "Oh, thank you!"

"I thought those were one of your favourites?" he couldn't help saying, kicking himself mentally for reacting at all. But she hadn't blushed, not even slightly.

"They are, very yummy, thank you." She smiled at him again, but there was something off. It wasn't the same smile that he was used to from her. There seemed a little less warmth, it was more the sort of look that she would give to Matt. Not that she disliked Matt or anything, but he definitely preferred the adoring looks that were normally given to him.

"Is everything okay?" He knew he shouldn't ask, he could be there for quite a while listening to a sad tale of how Abby was getting married, and Jess was going to be a bridesmaid, possibly it would even be her third time which apparently was a very bad thing. He tried to think of an excuse to escape quickly if the conversation turned down that route.

But all Jess said was: "Sorry, I'm tired. I was up late last night." She did break open the bag of Maltesers, and offer him one, which was something.

There was definitely something off. Last time he'd bought her Maltesers she'd got a bit over-excited when she opened the bag and half of them had ended up rolling all over the floor. Which wouldn't have been a problem except that an alert had gone off just then and Lester had come down to see what was happening...

Fortunately only Lester's pride had been hurt when he slipped over on one of the marble-like sweets. He'd attempted to ban any consumption of food at desks, but Jess had soon talked him out of that when she pointed out that he would have to give up the digestive biscuits he loved to dunk in his tea if he enforced that rule. Or worse, he would have to eat them in the staff room. The incident didn't seem to have dented Jess's enthusiasm for Maltesers though, he'd seen her devouring a bag of the things just a few days before.

"You should go to bed earlier," he found himself saying, waiting for the little blush to start sweeping over her face.

There was nothing, just a little smile at the corner of her mouth. "Oh, I'm hoping to," she replied, and turned back to her screens, effectively dismissing him. "Thank you for the chocolates."

Becker stared at the back of her head in surprise. Jess normally tried to engage him in conversation for as long as possible, no matter how much wittering and embarrassment ensued, especially if he gave her an opening like that. It was almost as if she were no longer quite as interested in him. He frowned, not keen on the change in her.

He headed off to the shooting range. That always improved his mood. And the targets never needed feeding with chocolate.

* * *

On the third day there was an anomaly.

It was rather a boring one, as anomalies went. A few short, dumpy creatures with inappropriately long names that Becker had forgotten even before they got back to the ARC got through. They didn't even require shooting as they were rather slow and just needed to be herded back through the anomaly. It was all very disappointing.

What was even more disappointing was the ridiculously large and ornate box of chocolates already sitting on Jess's desk when he went to hand in his black box. The gift looked overly fancy and expensive with its big red velvet bow and the little spray of artificial flowers stuck in one corner.

Abby, trotting up to Jess's station behind him, didn't seem to share that opinion: "Wow, nice chocolates Jess! Who gave you those?"

Becker didn't miss the glance she gave him, and rolled his eyes in disgust at the very idea that he would be the one to give something so crass. He'd got a very sensible bar of Dairy Milk in his pocket, which he thought anyone would prefer and which had been half price in Smiths. The expensive chocolates looked rather sickly. Although perhaps he would wait a little before handing it over. It might look a little... cheap... next to the fancy box.

"Oh... um..." Jess was blushing. He stared at her, but she wouldn't look at him, swivelling a little self-consciously in her chair. "I... it's a friend of mine."

Abby grinned, glanced at Becker again, and asked: "A male friend?"

"Yes."

Becker hated that stupid box of chocolates.

"Someone we know?"

Oh, and he hated Abby too.

Jess had the grace to look even more bashful, lowering her eyes in a way that he just found irresistible, and swinging her legs... he tried not to look at that.

"Um... no."

Abby looked at him again, but at least she'd stopped grinning. She obviously was bursting with questions though. So was Becker, but he wasn't going to ask them. Somehow, with Abby there, he doubted he would need to.

"So, is this a new boyfriend?"

"Um...well...I'm not sure..."

"Those chocolates say otherwise!"

"Mmm. Well, he's taking me to dinner tonight."

The bottom suddenly fell away from Becker's world. He really, really wanted to shoot those chocolates. And whoever the slime was who'd sent them.

"You shouldn't go out with some strange man you hardly know," he blurted out. "He might be some kind of psycho or something. Abby should go with you, just in case. And mace, have you got mace?"

Both women stared at him. Abby barely managed not to laugh, then told Jess: "I'm not going with you, but I want to hear all about it tomorrow. I'm betting Emily will as well. Lunch?"

Jess nodded happily. "Okay. And he's not a stranger, don't worry. I've known him ages, I just didn't realise until last night that he was interested."

"Oh?" Abby was interested as well, though not quite in the same way. "Do tell!"

"Don't you two have anything to do other than stand around gossiping?" Becker grumbled. He put down his black box and turned to go, just missing in his attempt to knock the stupid chocolates onto the floor. He could see a gift card on there saying something about See you tonight, and a foolishly large X. Hardly the most imaginative thing ever.

He stomped off to the armoury again. Doing an inventory of his guns always made him feel better.

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

The next day Becker spent the morning working at the station next to Jess. He was half-hoping that there would be a large number of text messages and phone calls coming in that he could put a stop to, but there was only one all morning, and Jess swore it was her grandmother when he asked her about it. She hadn't looked particularly pleased at the criticism either. Then just before lunch Matt appeared with an enormous bouquet of flowers. Matt was very keen on gardening, but Becker thought this was just a little bit too girly even for him. He was about to point this out to Matt when he saw the man walk over to Jess and give them to her.

Jess squealed with delight, and Matt looked fairly pleased at the reaction. Becker started to fantasise about shooting Matt (whom Jess had known for ages and had never previously seemed interested in her) with something a bit stronger than an EMD. He wondered if Emily knew about this?

Evidently she did, as she'd been following Matt and seemed almost as enamoured with the flowers as Jess did. She at least refrained from squealing, which his eardrums thanked her for. Matt, it transpired, had signed for them at the door. He could live another day, Becker decided. Matt probably wouldn't die if he was shot anyway, he was Futureman after all.

Apparently flowers were a reason for what seemed like every woman in the ARC to swarm around Jess and admire them. Becker was forced to sit there and listen to all the ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the size of the bouquet, and the colours, and the romantic note on the card. Whatever was on the card didn't get read out, but everyone seemed to be finding it highly entertaining, and Jess was blushing like mad and shaking her head, telling them it wasn't what they thought. The creep obviously enjoyed embarrassing her.

Eventually he could stand it no longer, and took his laptop up to Lester's office to use the computer there, as their boss was off spending the day at some meeting with the Minister. Becker could still see the flowers, and still see Jess and her entourage. Even Connor had gone along for a look. Connor was supposed to be his friend. Next time some dinosaur tried to eat him Becker wasn't so sure that he would save him quite so quickly. Maybe let the creature chew on an arm or something.

Connor popped his head round the door. "You hiding?"

"Just looking for a bit of peace and quiet, Connor. All that squealing makes it hard to write this report."

Connor didn't take the hint. Instead he came in and closed the door. "Jess seems pretty happy about this new bloke, " he commented helpfully.

"Indeed."

"Has anyone met him yet?"

"Jess, apparently."

Connor laughed, realised he was the only one doing so, and tried to turn it into a cough. "She seems quite impressed with him."

"The big ponce certainly seems to know his way around velvet bows and flowers," Becker replied grumpily.

"And restaurants. She says they went to a really expensive one last night."

"Waste of money. What's wrong with takeout?"

"I asked Abby that once. I didn't ask it again."

"Jess likes takeout!" He hadn't meant his voice to rise a little bit at the end there.

Connor raised an eyebrow but had the sense not to comment on it. "Think she liked the fancy restaurant better, mate. She says this one was amazing. And judging by what's written on the card, she was very appreciative!" Connor stopped, seeing the look on his friend's face, and added: "Um... well, it might not mean that...she says it doesn't but she's not fooling anyone...um...sorry."

Becker gave up trying to type his report in Lester's office. It might be more peaceful on the firing range that morning. He picked up his laptop. Connor was still looking apologetic.

"Look, if you want to go for a beer or something at lunchtime... they'll all be talking about it in the canteen."

"Thanks, no." He would rather starve than listen to all the gossip about Jess's new man, especially as Abby would be demanding details, but lunch with Connor and his well-meaning but blundering attempts to make him feel better wasn't going to help. Besides, Matt might join them. He intended to avoid Matt, who was certain to have some pointed comments. If their roles were reversed he doubted he would be able to resist telling Matt how very stupid he was for not making a move on the girl he liked in better time.

"Or this evening, beer after work is always good!"

"Why the sudden concern?" He knew why, but hoped it would get Connor off his back. Once, perhaps, it would have done, but Connor was engaged now and appeared to think this made him an expert on women.

"Well because Jess has this new bloke, and although you're even slower than me it must be pretty horrible to watch. When I thought Abby was seeing someone, even though it turned out to be just her brother come to stay, I was gutted..."

Becker left the office before Connor could say anything else. Unfortunately the only way to the shooting range was past Jess's station. He hadn't noticed before, but she was wearing the velvet ribbon from the chocolate box the previous day tied around her pony tail. Tacky. He wondered if anyone would believe it was an accident if he brushed against the flowers and knocked them on the floor. Probably not. People were glancing at him. It was quite embarrassing. It wasn't as if he'd been seeing her or anything. And he'd always been very subtle about his interest in her, unlike Jess who had worn her heart on her sleeve every day. He still couldn't believe that she'd become interested in someone else so quickly.

The card was open on the top of her station. He couldn't help reading the message that the florist had printed out:

'These are nowhere near as beautiful as you, my darling. You were wonderful last night xxx'

He felt a bit nauseated. Looking up, he realised Jess was looking at him with those huge blue eyes. She looked a little worried, then realised he was looking back and lowered her gaze.

"Nice flowers," he lied.

"Thanks." She met his gaze again, biting her lip. He thought that he could see some affection still there, but perhaps it was wishful thinking.

He left the laptop back at his station. He wasn't going to need it at the firing range, where he was going to use his trusty shotgun instead of the stupid EMD. Using proper guns always brightened his day.

* * *

The next day Jess was late for work.

Becker watched as she raced to her station, apologising profusely to the duty co-ordinator who had been forced to stay an extra twenty minutes after his shift should have finished.

"Sorry! Sorry! I'll make it up next time you're due to follow one of my shifts, promise! We're going to Devon for the weekend at the last minute and had to reserve a hotel or it would have gone, and I really am sorry!"

The night shift co-ordinator wasn't impressed. Neither was Becker, mostly with the holiday.

"Couldn't Lover Boy book it himself?" he grumbled. "Not very professional, coming in at this time. What if there was an anomaly?"

"Was there?"

"No, but that's not the point. And Lester wants to see you."

Jess pulled a face. "I suppose you told him I was late?"

"He could see for himself." Actually, Becker had considered pointing it out to him, just in case he'd missed it. He'd also desperately wanted to point out that it was a sign Jess's standards were slipping, and that perhaps Lester should speak to her about priorities and what was important. And the most important thing of all was that the flower-loving chocolate man was a dangerous distraction that Jess would be better off without. Reluctantly he'd decided that might be a bit petty and maintained a stoic silence. But when Lester had called down to him that he wanted to see Jess when she finally turned up, Becker hadn't been able to resist feeling just a little bit smug.

Jess trotted up to Lester's office. A little later she returned, a big smile on her face, and sat in front of her station.

It wasn't quite the reaction Becker had hoped for. He wandered over, annoyed to see that Jess was wearing one of the flowers from the previous day's bouquet in her hair.

"There could be insects in that flower," he pointed out. "If one bites you..."

"I have my epi-pen," she reassured him. "And I'm sure it doesn't have any insects. Most florists spray their flowers for things like that, don't worry."

It looked ridiculous as well, he thought but decided it would be best if he didn't say so. All huge and pink, it would probably wilt in the heat of the office. "What did Lester say?" he asked casually, hoping Jess had been told to cool it with the irritating creep.

For a moment he thought he might've succeeded. She gave him a mildly irritated look, obviously knowing exactly why he was asking. "Oh, he's been to the town in Devon we're going to tonight," she told him, watching his expression. Then suddenly she beamed at him: "He suggested a great pub in the centre, and there's a lovely walk up to a waterfall. And he's let me have Monday off so that we don't have to rush back! He's quite sweet really, isn't he?"

That was one word for it. Lester, now that he thought about it, had known Jess for even longer than Matt had, and had never shown the slightest interest... No, he'd been in the ARC very early that morning, it couldn't possibly be him.

"You shouldn't be going away with this man so soon, Jess. What if he turns out to be some kind of psychotic killer and you end up buried under that waterfall? You should take a gun, just in case."

"He's not a psychotic killer."

"You don't know."

Jess swung round to face him. "No, Becker, _you_ don't know. You've not met him, you don't know anything about him. Why can't you just be pleased for me like everyone else is?"

"What's his name?"

"I'm not telling you his name, you'll start checking on him."

"So you think he has something to hide?"

"No!" Her mobile went off at that moment and she went to answer it. He didn't even try to hide the fact that he was listening in. It sounded as though she were giving her credit card details.

"Was that for the holiday?" he asked, as soon as Jess rang off.

"Yes. God, you're nosey!"

"Why are you paying? Why isn't Mr Flowers and Chocolates paying? Or did you buy those too?"

Jess gave an exasperated sigh. "No, I didn't. This is my treat. He's been buying me things all week."

Becker harrumphed disbelievingly. "He's using you."

"No, he isn't. Haven't you got work to do somewhere?"

"I'm working here."

"Somewhere else. Don't your guns need looking at? Have you stroked them this morning? Hmm? They'll get jealous!" He thought he heard her then mutter: "There's a lot of it about," under her breath.

She did have a point. He hadn't checked the armoury yet that day. He didn't really feel like it though.

* * *

Apparently it was a seaside town, and during her lunch break Jess had bought a very small bikini for the beach.

Becker was starting to hate lunchtime in the staff canteen. Abby and Emily were both there admiring Jess's purchases and giggling with her at whatever else was in her shopping bag.

Lester let Jess skip off home ten minutes early, so in total she'd missed an entire half hour that day. Becker wondered if it could be docked from her wages to stop her buying any more holiday breaks for her user of a boyfriend.

He tried spending most of the evening at the shooting range. It didn't help at all.

On Saturday he serviced and catalogued his entire private gun collection. It took all day. He didn't stop thinking about the toerag who had taken Jess away for the entire time.

On Sunday he gave up and called Connor after all, saying that he wanted to go for a beer, and almost begged him not to bring Matt.

Sadly for Becker, although there was no Matt, Abby decided to come along. Connor made vague attempts at being sympathetic, but Abby wasted no time in telling Becker it was his own fault for not making a move on Jess himself. Becker drank a lot of beer. It didn't make him feel better, and come the morning it made him feel a lot worse.

Luckily there were no anomaly alerts on Monday, with their loud sirens. Becker didn't go near the firing range. He knew, from the way his head was pounding, that it wouldn't make him feel any better.


	3. Chapter 3

When Becker arrived at work on Tuesday morning, Jess was already at her station. She looked rather happy as she sat there chatting to Abby. Abby, Becker had already decided, wasn't the friend he'd always thought she was. Next time she vanished through an anomaly he wasn't going to spend a year worrying about her and making himself miserable about it. In fact, he might open a bottle of wine to celebrate. Although Connor was trying very hard in his way to be supportive through all this, and he would probably miss Abby, so perhaps Becker wouldn't go quite that far. He wasn't going to search very hard for her though.

Becker had always rather liked having his work station next to Jess. It meant that he could listen to her chatter, and watch her work, and generally spend quite a lot of time with her without actually being seen to be spending a lot of time with her. Lester had offered him an office once. It had been a very small office, barely a step up from a broom cupboard really, but Becker had refused it on the grounds that he preferred to be based in the hub so that he could be on instant alert as soon as an anomaly appeared. Also so that he could secretly admire Jess's legs whenever she wore a short skirt, which was pretty much every day, but he didn't think Lester needed to know that.

He was starting to rethink his decision as the morning progressed. Everyone kept stopping to chat to Jess and ask about her weekend away. It didn't help that she'd brought back a box of biscuits for the office, which were making people even more interested in her weekend. The broom cupboard office was starting to look quite attractive.

The chatter went on for most of the morning. He got an hour's break from it at lunchtime when Jess skipped off to the canteen with Abby and Emily. He took the opportunity to grab the last few biscuits and hide them in a drawer in the hope that would slow the visits that afternoon. Then he got hungry, waiting for the canteen to clear, and ate them. When Jess returned, she picked up the box and started to fold it for recycling.

"Did you like the biscuits?" she asked him.

"I told you I didn't want any."

"There are crumbs on your desk."

Becker looked down and realised he was rumbled. "Oh, yeah I was hungry, I had one."

"Thank you?"

"You're welcome."

Jess rolled her eyes at him. "You aren't funny. And I had a lovely weekend, thank you for asking."

"Has he paid you back yet?"

"It was my treat, I told you. And anyway, none of your business."

"So that's a no. He's had a nice free weekend. He's using you."

"Don't start this again, Becker."

"Has he even got a job?"

"Yes!"

"What does he do? Used car sales?"

"Security," Jess snapped back at him. "Go on, find fault with that."

It did take Becker a moment or two to do so, but he managed it. "A store security guard or something? Because some of them just put a uniform on and think they're some sort of military expert."

"No. Proper security."

"Where?"

"Again none of your business. Stop prying."

"It's my job to make sure staff members aren't compromising our security. You're going out with someone nobody knows anything about."

"Abby's met him. She likes him. So stop worrying."

Abby might even get pushed through the next anomaly.

"Who else has met him? Connor?"

If Connor had met him, and still been pretending to be supporting Becker, the little geek was in big trouble.

"Just Abby. And Emily."

So Connor could live another day. Those two bossy women, on the other hand...

"And when's he going to pay you back in some way for the free holiday?"

Jess sighed. "If you must know, we had such a wonderful time that he's taking me to Paris next weekend and he's going to pay for that. So it's not one-sided. Is that okay with you?"

Becker stared at her miserably. It wasn't okay with him at all. He was starting to curse his own stupidity in keeping her at arm's length for so long. Now, instead of her smiling adoringly at him whenever he came near her, they seemed to always be arguing, and her affection was totally directed at this other man. And Paris... city of romance. The only person she should be going there with was him. Somehow shooting holidays had lost their appeal.

Her mobile went off. As had happened the previous week, she seemed to need to confirm some sort of booking with her credit card. Becker narrowed his eyes suspiciously, then confronted her when she rang off.

"That was you paying for Paris as well. He _is_ using you! I knew it!"

"Becker..."

The anomaly detector sounded before either of them could argue further. The hub was suddenly alive with activity and Becker soon found himself on his way to Milton Keynes to deal with a baby mammoth that had already damaged the town's famous cows.

By the time they'd rounded it up, sent it back through the anomaly and had got back to the ARC, Jess had already gone home. Abby had helped deal with the anomaly, but had refused to answer any of his questions about Jess's boyfriend, and had just repeated her mantra from Sunday night when she'd told him that he should have made a move on Jess whilst she was still available. This had actually occurred to Becker by that stage, and he didn't take kindly to her mentioning it in front of Matt, as he'd had to spend the rest of the journey back listening to the Irish/Future/whatever man telling him that Abby was right, so she was.

It was hardly helpful.

Jess had left less than ten minutes before they arrived, so he presumed she would still be at home ahead of whatever luxurious treat her useless boyfriend planned on making her pay for that night. Leaving the reports until morning, Becker drove straight over to her flat, intending to continue their interrupted discussion of earlier.

Now that Abby and Connor had moved out, he rarely had an excuse to visit Jess at home. In fact it had been months since he'd been there.

The communal door was on the latch again. Evidently this so-called security man wasn't very good at his job if he hadn't drummed into her the dangers of this. The first time he'd found that he could just push the door and let himself in he'd printed off a pile of guidance on all the risks involved and helpfully posted it in each of Jess's neighbours letterboxes. He'd also put up several useful signs to remind people to lock the door, and a couple of posters in the hallway for good measure. Jess had been so mortified when her neighbours realised her flat was the source of all the nuisance mail that she hadn't spoken to him for a week. But it was for her own good, even if the main culprit had eventually turned out to be Connor.

On this one occasion it was probably a good thing, he realised, climbing the stairs two at a time. It meant Jess wouldn't be able to refuse to buzz him in, and any argument wouldn't be very public. Plus he would probably get to meet the creep who was using Jess and could warn him off.

He had a long speech prepared on the dangers of con-men, and trusting women, and spending too much time with someone you barely knew (even though Jess claimed she did know him). This all faded from his mind when she opened the door and he saw her standing there at the bottom of the stairs in a pink silk kimono looking slightly flushed and very dishevelled.

"Becker! What on earth are you doing here?"

He was fairly certain that she wasn't wearing anything at all under that kimono.

"I..." He was having trouble remembering what he was doing there. "I was going to warn you..."

It was a very sheer silk and clung to every curve. He tried to keep looking at her face instead.

"You're too trusting, and you're going to end up conned out of all your money."

It was very, very short. And he wasn't looking at it. Particularly not looking at the way the material accentuated her very hard nipples. He forced himself to look at her face.

Jess groaned. "Oh no, please not this again. Go away, Becker, I'll see you at work tomorrow." She tried to close the door, but he blocked it with his foot. The movement took him closer to her. He could see over her shoulder that the dress she'd worn to work was lying in a discarded heap on the floor halfway up the stairs.

"Is he here now?"

Jess looked at him pityingly, as if he'd said something particularly stupid. "Yes. Please go."

For some reason she was still wearing her shoes. Not comfy slippers, or dainty little fluffy mules, or anything suitable for the house. Bright red stilettos that had possibly the highest heels he'd ever seen her in. She'd worn them to work a few weeks ago. He'd barely left his desk all day except when he'd followed her to the canteen and back at lunchtime - purely because they had taken a break at the same time. Also she might have fallen over in those shoes or something and needed helping up.

Now this bloke was turning out to be some sort of shoe fetishist along with all his other faults. Becker was tempted to push past Jess, find the kinky git and punch him out.

"Jess! Just pay the guy and get back here!"

A man's voice, coming from somewhere along the corridor. Much as he tried to think otherwise, it was hard to imagine that it was coming from anywhere other than Jess's bedroom, because he'd been in her weird upside down flat a few times, and he knew the living room was upstairs.

"Shush, it's not the pizza boy, it's one of my workmates!" Jess called back.

There was no reply, but Becker thought he could hear movement. To his annoyance he then heard a door shut. The coward had probably locked himself in the bedroom.

"Impressive," Becker muttered.

"Please go," Jess hissed at him again. "You're wrong about him. Why can't you trust my judgement on this?"

The pizza delivery boy chose that moment to arrive, needing to be buzzed in as Becker had locked the door behind him. He looked at Becker curiously, but took the money from Jess and handed over a delicious-smelling box.

"I see the fancy restaurants have stopped now he's got what he wanted."

He could have kicked himself for saying it. Jess did kick him, with one of her spiky red shoes, making him jump back and giving her the opportunity to slam the door in his face. Knowing that there was no way it was going to re-open, he'd little choice but to follow the pizza boy out.

The man's voice did sound vaguely familiar, but he couldn't place it. He realised it might well be one of his own men, which would explain why they didn't want to be seen by him. Unable to wait until morning, he headed back to the ARC to check the rotas and see who had taken a long weekend.

He searched for over an hour, eventually going through every member of staff in the ARC. There were about twenty matches, most of which were women but of the five men only one worked in security and Becker could see him working out in the gym and the access records showed that he'd been in the ARC ever since coming back from Milton Keynes. Three of the others were also still in the ARC, and the one remaining possible suspect had such a strong Scottish accent that there was no way he was the man Becker had just heard calling from Jess's bedroom.

Unless it was an ex-staff member, and there were not many of those still breathing, it wasn't an ARC employee. But the voice had sounded familiar, he just couldn't place it.

"Finished the report yet?" Matt startled him, which of course amused his team leader no end. "Ah, not very alert there, Becker. Need to work on that!"

"I was checking something."

"Uh-huh," Matt looked over his shoulder to see what was on the screen. It didn't take him long to see the pattern. "Aw, you're not trying to work out who it was that took Jess away? Becker, let it go, the girl's happy with this guy. And next time you like someone, make a move faster."

"He's using her."

"Abby says not, and Abby's her best mate. Good enough for me." He reached over and shut down the laptop. "Come on, pub time."

Becker sighed, and followed Matt out. He had little hope that beer was going to make him feel better.


	4. Chapter 4

Jess barely spoke to him on Wednesday.

He knew he deserved it, but couldn't quite bring himself to apologise. Fortunately there were two anomalies to take his mind off it, although Matt seemed to be getting far more direction on the one he was dealing with than the monosyllabic instructions Becker received.

By Thursday though, he couldn't stand it.

For one thing, he couldn't get the image of Jess in that silk kimono and those scarlet heels out of his head. The thought of someone else with their hands all over her was unbearable. And the thought that she seemed so happy with this man, that she might never give him up and that they might end up married or something horrible like that. That hadn't happened yet, and he wasn't going to give her up without a fight no matter what Abby and Matt said.

Another problem (and quite a big one) was that Jess was still not speaking to him. In order to win her back he was going to have to apologise, and to be very, very careful about what he said to her.

Against his better judgement, he went to a nearby branch of Thorntons and chose a large, fancy-looking box of their finest. A bar of Dairy Milk was far better value and less sickly but the smart boxes seemed to get a better reaction, judging by the success of the shoe pervert. He left them on her chair with a note then waited for her to get back from lunch and find them.

When she did, she opened the little note, smiled, and tucked it into her handbag. Then she opened up the box and took a few moments to choose a particularly succulent chocolate before popping it into her mouth. Taking that as a good sign, he got up and went over to the ADD.

Jess's smile immediately faded, and she put the box to one side. "What?"

Evidently the chocolates were not as well-received as he thought.

"Did you like the chocolates?"

"Yes," she answered warily.

"So are we okay now?" he ventured. It didn't look like it.

Jess frowned. "They're from you?"

"You just read the card."

She retrieved it from her bag and quickly looked at it again, frowning slightly. "Oh. Yes. Sorry, I thought... never mind. Yes, apology accepted, thank you for the chocolates."

The sleazy boyfriend had obviously done something to upset her, Becker realised. The timing might well be perfect, especially as no chocolates or flowers appeared to be arriving from that quarter at the moment. He was even getting a small smile. It was an embarrassed one, but a smile nonetheless.

"So, I wondered if I could take you for a quick drink after work, just to apologise properly."

"You mean just to run my boyfriend down some more."

"No, I promise not to mention him." Running him down was quite a good idea though. Becker wondered if he could find a quiet road somewhere with no witnesses.

"Okay. Just a very quick drink though, I have to start packing."

He agreed to that. It would either be quick, or she wouldn't be packing at all. Although, as she'd still paid for the trip he could just go with her instead. If only he could make her choose him.

Becker had never found an afternoon pass so quickly. He wasn't a nervous person, but he was dwelling on the pending time alone with Jess, and what he was going to say to her, and how she was going to react far more than he thought was healthy. He kept going over and over it in his head, and the more he thought about it, the worse it got. He even tried making a few notes on what he wanted to say, but it wasn't a subject that came easily to him.

5:30 arrived, and he made his way over to the ADD. Jess still looked a little wary, but picked up her bag, called goodnight to one of her colleagues, and followed him to the car park.

Because they were both driving, he ended up taking her to a coffee shop just up the road. It was quiet, but he would have preferred a pub. Apart from anything else he could use a proper drink. Taking their coffees to a corner table, they sat down.

That was the point at which Becker realised he wasn't going to be able to do it. He knew what he wanted to say to her, but the thought of pouring his heart out was totally repugnant to him. He sat there, looking at his coffee.

Jess watched him. "So," she said after a few moments silence stretched out into a whole minute. "Was there something you wanted to say, or are we going to sit here meditating? I really do have to pack, we're leaving straight after work tomorrow."

"Don't go," he managed to blurt out. It shocked him almost as much as it did her.

"It's booked. And I want to go. It's only a weekend."

"Go...go with me instead!" He knew this wasn't coming out the way he wanted it to, and cringed inwardly at his own weakness. Honestly, he was a trained soldier, getting this pathetic over some girl. But it wasn't just some girl. It was his Jess, and he wasn't going to give her up without a fight.

Jess stared at him in shock, but recovered quickly. "Why?"

"Because I... I don't want you going with him. I hate seeing you with someone else."

"Why?" she asked again, very softly.

It was rather unfair that she'd got over her crush on him, and that somewhere along the line she'd become the one in control. Life had been so much easier when he could just gently tease her and make her blush, or make her gabble out some embarrassing comment that had his men laughing for weeks. He was well aware of the irony now that he was the one gabbling.

"Because he's not good enough for you."

"But you don't know him."

"I know he's not good enough for you! He's making you pay for everything, ripping you off!"

"He's really not, you have to trust me on that. And you did promise not to mention him," she added. "I've still not heard a good reason to give him up, or any reason other than that you don't like the idea of me going out with him."

He couldn't say it. This was too difficult. Facing down a pack of hungry future predators was child's play compared to this.

"I don't like the idea of you going out with him," he admitted. "I liked things the way they were."

Jess nodded. "I know. Did you think I'd wait around for you to make a move forever?"

He couldn't answer that without making her angry, so he chose not to say anything. She took that as an answer in itself.

"I see. Well, Becker, even now all I'm hearing is that this is all about you and what you want. The difference is, the guy I'm seeing now saw what he wanted and went for it. That's all you had to do, and you've had a very long time to do it." Jess got to her feet.

"You're going?"

"I think we're done. I'll see you tomorrow."

"But..."

"Night, Becker." Jess turned and quickly walked out of the coffee shop. The door had closed behind her long before he could think of anything to say. He could see her trotting down the street in her bright blue heels, her hair held in a low pony tail that swung gently in time with her step.

She wanted him to give her a reason, and it was just everything about her, but he was never going to be the kind of person who could pour out his heart, not to anyone. There was only one reason, but he'd realised it too late, not recognising it for what it was.

But the only thing left of her there that he hadn't lost was the lipstick mark on her half-finished mug of coffee. Everything else was gone.

* * *

On Friday Becker took a sickie.

Captain Becker had never taken a sickie in his entire life. Even valid sick days were something he avoided as much as possible. When he'd got the flu and a temperature of nearly 104 he'd come into the ARC to report for duty. Admittedly Sarah had driven him straight home, then cursed him for a month afterwards when she went down with it.

Because of this, people were suspicious. Connor and Matt both called him to see what was up. Lester apparently knew what was up, and told him so when he called in, although it appeared to be an educated guess rather than any indiscretion on Jess's part. It was only a delay of the inevitable, and he would still have to face Jess on Monday along with whatever horrible developments had occurred over the weekend. But at least he didn't have to listen to all the excitement over Paris, and see the girls admiring whatever risqué underwear had been purchased for the break.

On Saturday he was so disgusted with himself for taking the day off that he went in and wrote up all his outstanding reports, of which there were quite a few because Becker hated any sort of paperwork. Then he spent an hour or so on the firing range, before going for a long workout in the gym. It did sort of work, as he was too tired when he got home to do anything other than sleep.

On Sunday, he went for a long run in a nearby park. When he got home, he found Abby sitting on his doorstep. He still felt a little betrayed by her, but let her in anyway, leaving her to make herself a coffee while he had a quick shower and changed.

She was waiting with a second coffee which she handed to him when he came back out to the kitchen.

"Do you trust me?" She asked.

"Not much at the moment, no."

Abby ignored that. "Jess texted me earlier. He's moving in with her."

"What?" Abby was just full of good news. He wished he'd left her on the doorstep. "She's been with him less than two weeks!"

"Mmm. Well, some people move a bit quicker than others. So, when you come to work tomorrow it might be a bit awkward."

"I'm taking some leave," he said quickly.

"No you're not. Come in and work with me in the menagerie, I need someone to help hold the animals while they have their shots. It'll take all morning."

He shook his head. "No. I'm due about two months leave. I can take some."

"You can't avoid it forever."

"Actually I can. Like I said, I have two months due to me. And I'm going to ask for a reassignment. Chasing round after dinosaurs is getting a bit boring, and my team's pretty good. There are several men who could take over. So. No problem."

"You once told me this was the best job you ever had."

"Yeah, I was drunk, and Jess... things were different. It's not the best job now."

Abby sighed. "Look, just give me until lunchtime tomorrow. I promise you that everything will be okay by tomorrow afternoon. But you have to come into work. And you have to trust me. Can you do that?"

He could trust her, possibly. But come into work and face Jess? That was going to be a tall order.

Abby seemed to understand this. "I'll call round in the morning. You can give me a lift in."

He nodded, wondering why Jess couldn't understand things without being told? If she did, things would've been a lot less complicated.

* * *

Connor dropped Abby off bright and early on Monday morning. Becker had half-hoped that she wouldn't turn up. He'd lain awake for most of the night worrying about what the day would bring. He knew that he didn't want to face Jess and all her entourage who would be coming along to ask her about the holiday.

Abby, however, was as good as her word. She went straight up to the menagerie and found him a whole list of jobs. Most of them involved hauling half-drugged dinosaurs around for her and he was glad of a break when she finally announced that they were finished towards the end of the morning.

Abby had promised that everything would be okay, but he saw no sign of it yet. Worse, when he asked what they were doing next, she told him that they were heading down to the hub. That had definitely not been part of the agreement.

"Abby, I really don't want to go near there today."

Abby sighed. "If it's any help, you won't be. Remember that anomaly a few weeks back? The one that opened in the corridor down there? Connor thinks it went just a couple of weeks into the future. We've gone a couple of weeks into the future ourselves now too, so it should be opening up again any minute."

Becker hated that sort of anomaly. He could already feel the sort of headache coming on that he got whenever he tried to work out how Matt was still with them. "So we need to lock it?"

Abby rolled her eyes. "No, it opens up two weeks ago. Before Jess met her new guy."

"How does that help?"

"Well obviously you go through and make a move before he does!"

"We don't go through anomalies. You know the rules."

"God, I'm really starting to wonder if Jess deserves this. She's pretty smart, you know? We'll just have to pray that if you manage to fix this and you two ever have kids it's her brains they get and not yours! It's your rule, Becker. Break it!"

"I can't do that."

"Why? It's not as if you don't know if it's safe. It's perfectly safe - they have an anally-retentive head of security there making sure it's safe."

Becker frowned at the insult, but let it go. Abby was right on all the other counts, after all. "But that's a problem. I'll be there too... I mean the two weeks ago me."

"Hide! Aren't you supposed to be special forces trained or something? Don't they teach you stealth? Run in and hide in the hub, we all came in from this direction so we won't see you. Tell Jess to cover for you. She's much smarter than you, she'll come up with something."

Again with the insults. Still, it was worth thinking about.

"Maybe."

They had been walking, and had reached the corridor. He could see Jess sitting at the ADD, her back to him.

"Tell her you wanted a break, and the only person you trust to take care of us is you. She'll like that."

"I don't know, the anomalies are dangerous, we shouldn't be going through..."

It was opening, right in front of them, filling the corridor. He could no longer see Jess on the other side.

"Just go! Hurry, before they lock it!"

The anomaly alert went off, echoing around the ARC.

"Go!" Abby almost screamed at him, shoving him towards the glowing light. She was quite strong for someone so small and he staggered a few steps forward.

Reliving one of the most miserable two weeks of his life wasn't an ideal situation, but if this really went through to two weeks ago, and Jess really hadn't met that flower-loving, shoe-fancying, poverty-stricken creep then perhaps it would be worth it. And he could always jump straight back if it was the wrong time.

"Becker! Move!"

He moved. It was against his better judgement, and against his heavily-enforced rule, and... well, it was just wrong. But if it was a disaster then at least he could blame Abby.

* * *

TBC

* * *

A/N - Thanks for all the reviews and likes on this, that was a nice surprise. There'll be a little break now, as this was the first section of the story, but I'll try to get chapter 5 up in a few weeks. I've written quite a lot of the next section - I just want to get it to a point where I'm happy with it, and happy it ties in with what goes before. And I couldn't comment on the guessing :-)


End file.
